Harvard Had First Chance To Stop Damaging 'Virus'

When his computer program went awry and what was intended as an innocuous experiment mushroomed into a national crisis, Robert T. Morris Jr. '87-'88 called his friends at Harvard.

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, Morris telephoned Andrew H. Sudduth '83-'85 and Paul Graham, a computer science graduate student, at Harvard's Aiken Computation Lab when he realized that a simple but critical error in his program had allowed a computer "virus" to spread rapidly out of control.

"He was extremely shocked and tired," said Sudduth, describing the phone call. "His tone was very sober."

Morris asked Sudduth to alert users about the virus and to instruct them how to contain it. Morris could not send the message out himself because his owncomputer at Cornell University, where he is agraduate student, had been one of the firstdisabled by the virus, Sudduth said.

Sudduth said he sent the message out only toHarvard, although the computers were affectedacross the country. In an advisory sent to Harvardusers by electronic mail, he detailed thetechnical antidote that could be used to eliminatethe virus, adding at the end, "Hope this helps,but more, I hope it is a hoax." Sudduth, a Harvardsystems analyst, said he did not send the messageout more widely because he was not aware of theproblem's magnitude.

The message, however, was not transmitted intime to avoid problems at Harvard because thevirus had already begun to slow down theUniversity's system.

Workers at Aiken said they first discovered theproblem late Wednesday but that they did not knowuntil news reports this weekend that Morris hadmasterminded the virus. "People were very angry,"said Assistant Professor of Computer Science MarkFriedell. "Before we knew it was Robert, we wouldhave gotten out a big pot of tar and somefeathers."

Harvard was first formally notified of thevirus on Thursday, when they received a warningfrom the National Science Foundation, which has asimilar computer system, said Harvard News OfficeDirector Peter Costa. Programmers have beenworking "file by file" to purge the virus from thesystem, which is now "almost 100 percentdisinfected," he said.

Morris 'Hanging On'

Sudduth and Graham, both of whom have been indaily contact with Morris, said yesterday thatMorris was "hanging on" as he awaits the legalconsequences of his infectious program. They saidMorris is still uncertain what the legalramifications are for initiating the virus.

Morris has retained a lawyer and is meetingwith federal prosecutors. The investigators arelooking at whether Morris, who has not yet beencharged with any crime, violated laws thatprohibit unauthorized entry into computer systems.

Graham said Morris had made "an honest mistake"and that he had not intended the virus to do anyharm.

"If you had to describe him in one word, oddlyenough, it would be innocent." said Graham ofMorris. "A nice, innocent guy."

Graham, who called The New York Times Thursdaymorning to explain that the virus was "anaccident," said it was part of an experiment incomputer security which Morris had been working onfor some time.

Graham, characterizing the experiment as beingborn out of "scientific curiosity" rather than"malicious curiosity," said that an error in theprogram caused the virus to mulitiply and spreadat a rapid rate from computer to computer. Heexplained that Morris had intended only for thevirus to have one copy in each computer withoutreplicating.

He added that breaking into computer systems,although "illicit," is "the standard way of beinga journeyman in computer security."

"I would hope that people would look at thereally great benefit he has done," said Sudduth,who said that the virus has helped to make peopleaware that additional security precautions may beneeded in some systems. "He has effectively raisedthe computer users' level of understanding on theissue of computer security."

"There is not a single person in computersecurity who couldn't learn something from thisprogram," added Graham.

Others saw Morris' virus as a feather inHarvard's computing cap. One graduate student, whodeclined to be named said, "I was glad it startedat Harvard, because I thought it was an MITprank.